Super Bowl matchup: A glimpse at Chiefs-Eagles through 49ers prism
The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs have Andy Reid in common heading into Super Bowl LVII. Reid coached the Eagles for 14 seasons and the Chiefs for the last 10. They each have a Kelce brother, the Eagles with Jason at center and the Chiefs with Travis at tight end.
They also have a shared experience in that the conference champions are the only two teams in the NFL to lay a decisive beating on the 49ers.
Gauging the mood in the 49ers' locker room on clearout day, as well as recent comments from Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, a team-wide dose of truth serum would likely make Kansas City the favorite.
There's some recency bias at work, given that the 49ers' 31-7 road loss to the Eagles was essentially decided the moment quarterback Brock Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing elbow in the first quarter.
“In the nicest way, we didn't really get to see how good the Eagles' defense was,” Samuel said Wednesday on ESPN's First Take. “We had them schemed up, we had them dialed up. What a coincidence we don't have a quarterback.”
Said Aiyuk on The SFNiners podcast earlier in the week: “(The Eagles) got their hands full . . . talk about them being a good defense, I'm not too sure,” Aiyuk said. “This Kansas City pass game will expose what we thought we were going to be able to expose before some unfortunate circumstances happened.”
Christian McCaffrey in an NFL Network interview, wasn't too keen on either team and wasn't sure if he'd even watch.
“I hope both teams lose,” McCaffrey said.
On Oct. 23, the Chiefs came to Levi's Stadium and broke open a tight game in the second half for a 44-23 win as the 49ers fell to 3-4. McCaffrey had been a member of the 49ers for all of two days but played 23 snaps with eight carries for 38 yards and two receptions for 24 yards, the first glimpse at the player who would carry their offense.
The 49ers wouldn't lose again until the NFC Championship Game, winning 12 straight including playoff victories over Seattle and Dallas before losing to the top-seeded Eagles.
The disparity between how the 49ers played against the Super Bowl participants as opposed to everyone else was striking. They were outscored 70-30 by Philadelphia and Kansas City and outscored everyone else 480-237 — a margin of just over 14 points per game.
Here's a look at why Philadelphia and Kansas City were superior and what it means for the 49ers going forward. They've been in the NFC Championship Game three times in the last four years, have a core nucleus of players at or near their prime and presumably their window to win their sixth Super Bowl and first since the 1994 season is wide open.
Quarterback play
The Chiefs Patrick Mahomes won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award by a good margin over Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts, getting 48 of 50 first-place votes.
Mahomes looked the part against the 49ers, going 25of-34 for 423 yards, three touchdowns and one interception
as he dominated the second half. Jimmy Garoppolo, meanwhile was 25 of 37 for 303 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, a lost fumble and was sacked for a safety.
It was the first extended look Purdy, who was 4-for-9 for 66 yards and an interception in mop-up time after the Chiefs broke it open in the fourth quarter.
Hurts needed only to manage the NFC title game win, and was 15-of-25 for 121 yards and had 11 rushes for 39 yards and a touchdown.
Purdy threw only four passes, two before he got hurt and two afterward. In the interim, Josh Johnson took his eyes off a shotgun snap for a key lost fumble before he was lost to a concussion on a sack.